E-Commerce Experience

Midland began offering a 5 percent discount on
online orders when it first launched e-commerce in
2003, and continues that incentive today. Customer
adoption was slow-going in those early years of it, with
roughly 5-10 percent of orders done on the platform. But
Powell estimates that percentage at around 60 percent
as of 2012, and is up to approximately 75 percent as of
August 2017.

Customers can check Midland’s inventory online at
all four of its locations from their phone, tablet or
computer. The company overhauled its search engine
several years ago to enable customers to simply enter a
part number or part of its description, and the system
will pull up that product’s information. Customers can
also track shipments online, pull up catalog pages and
find product specifications and manage every aspect of
their orders — including downloading them from Excel
spreadsheets.

“It definitely gives us an advantage because it makeslife easier on the customer,” Powell says. “Customerstoday don’t have as much time to pick up the phone andfind out information and track down the right person.”Midland has included customer comment boxes onits e-commerce ever since its launch 14 years ago, and ithas enabled the company to mold that offering basedon feedback. At one point, that feedback indicatedwww.inddist.com